For Lyle Lovett, songwriting is spontaneous, organic

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt will play an acoustic show at the Jefferson Theatre on Saturday. (Photo by Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns)

When John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett take the stage at the Jefferson Theatre on Saturday, they won’t have a set list in front of them.

The pair first worked together in 1989 and play off each other’s spur-of-the-moment song choices when they perform on the same tour.

“That’s the fun in this kind of show,” Lovett said. “Every night has got its own distinct thing.”

There’s a handful of songs he’ll always play, but Lovett, 59, might try one he hasn’t performed in four years if it feels right, adding spontaneity to the show.

For Lovett, who is known for his songwriting, creating music is just as organic.

He pulls together lyrics and melodies as they come to him. Sometimes, the elements come out of nowhere. Other times, he sits down with the intention to create a song.

“Writing is such an elusive thing and especially doing something that’s purely out of your own mind and imagination,” Lovett said. “I’m just thrilled when I write something that makes sense from beginning to end and actually has some substance, that actually means something.”

Don Rollins, the Lamar alum who co-wrote “It’s 5 o’ Clock Somewhere” and wrote songs for a Nashville publishing company for 12 years, said the key to successful songwriting like Lovett’s is making the familiar unfamiliar.

“What you’re trying to do is write something that can reach everybody, but you have to write it in such a way that it’s not predictable,” Rollins said. “That’s a really hard line to walk. You’re trying to get something out there that’s universal and familiar but say it in a fresh way so it’s not boring.”

Lovett said he doesn’t necessarily think of songs this way, but that it can be a challenging to communicate what you want in a song.

Each one is a puzzle, he said, and finding the right pieces to say what you intend isn’t always easy.

“If I can say, ‘Well, that’s what I really meant,’ then I’m happy,” Lovett said.

Beaumont native Kevin Russell of Shinyribs said that as a songwriter, he admires musicians like Lovett who step away from the industry’s conventions.

“He does what he wants musically, and people came to it,” Russell said.

Lovett has found a way to connect to audiences by drawing from personal experience when writing.

“My songs are really an extension of my own experience, my own life, and they occur in an organic way,” Lovett said. “I never play a song that I feel doesn’t represent me and my life.”

But Lovett doesn’t consider himself a great craftsman.

“I’m not sure that with anything in my live I’ve ever sat back and felt like, ‘Well, I really did that,’” Lovett said.

He’s always thinking of ways to sing or play songs differently — even ones he’s been playing for 30 years — and live performances give him a way to do that.
“To me, it’s always a work in progress,” Lovett said. “It all feels alive to me.”

<b>ZZ TOP</b><br>
<b>HOMETOWN:</b> They may not be from Southeast Texas, but the region has adopted the Houston band since many of their first gigs were booked in Beaumont.<br>
<b>PLAY THIS TRACK:</b> "La Grange" less

<b>ZZ TOP</b><br>
<b>HOMETOWN:</b> They may not be from Southeast Texas, but the region has adopted the Houston band since many of their first gigs were booked in Beaumont.<br>
<b>PLAY THIS TRACK:</b> "La ... more

Photo: Ross Halfin

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For Lyle Lovett, songwriting is spontaneous, organic

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Russell, who has seen and performed countless shows, said the moments where everything clicks on stage are the best.

“Every now and again a great song meets with a great performance, and those are the moments that I really cherish the most,” Russell said. “It doesn’t happen very often, and when it does, everybody knows it.”

Lovett has experienced these moments himself.

He said every time Hiatt plays “Seven Little Indians,” he feels the singer’s humanity.

“Songs by different songwriters are as different as the people are,” Lovett said.

Because of the free-flowing nature of this tour, Lovett is able to ask Hiatt about his work on stage, giving the audience insight into the songwriting process.

Russell said songwriters often learn from other musicians’ processes, even those in different genres.

But Lovett said no matter how much someone studies another’s work, songwriting is a personal experience.

“What you ultimately learn is that everybody’s process is different,” Lovett said. “You could make notes and absorb someone else’s approach, but that approach might only work for them. The thing that you learn is you just have to do it yourself.”